Introduction

Gatsby Airtable Advanced Starter is a powerful blog starter template for Gatsby v2 that uses Airtable as its backend. This project provides a minimal foundation for building advanced GatsbyJS-powered blogs without UI limitations. It's based on the Gatsby Advanced Starter and offers a range of features to help developers quickly set up a professional blog with a flexible content management system.

Main Features

1. Gatsby v2 support
2. Airtable integration as a content backend
3. Markdown support for posts
4. Code syntax highlighting
5. YouTube video and Twitter tweet embedding
6. Tag and category organization for posts
7. Disqus comments integration
8. Google Analytics support
9. Social sharing features (Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, LinkedIn, Telegram)
10. SEO optimizations including sitemap generation and robots.txt
11. RSS feed generation
12. Offline support
13. Web App Manifest support
14. Gatsby-image compatibility with static and content folders
15. Netlify deploy configuration

Installation Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/marcomelilli/gatsby-airtable-advanced-starter YourProjectName
   

2. Navigate to the project directory:

   cd YourProjectName
   

3. Remove the Git history:

   rm -rf .git
   

4. Install dependencies:

   npm install
   

   or

   yarn install
   

5. Create .env.development and .env.production files with Airtable configuration:

   AIRTABLE_API_KEY=XXXXXXXXXXX
   AIRTABLE_BASE=XXXXXXXXXXXX
   AIRTABLE_TABLE_NAME=Blog
   AIRTABLE_TABLE_NAME_LINKED=Authors
   

6. Start the development server:

   gatsby develop
   

Usage Instructions

1. Configure your site by editing data/SiteConfig.js:

   • Set your site title, description, and other metadata
   • Configure social media and analytics settings

2. Create content in Airtable:

   • Use the provided Airtable bases as templates for your blog posts and authors
   • Customize the Airtable schema to fit your needs

3. Customize the site appearance:

   • Modify the existing components in the src directory
   • Add new components as needed

4. Add blog posts:

   • Create new records in your Airtable "Blog" table
   • Use Markdown in the content field for rich formatting

5. Manage authors:

   • Add author information to the "Authors" table in Airtable
   • Link authors to blog posts in the "Blog" table

6. Configure SEO:

   • Edit the static/robots.txt file to include your domain for the sitemap

7. Deploy your site:

   • Use the included Netlify configuration for easy deployment
   • Or deploy to your preferred hosting platform

Important Notes

1. Keep your Airtable API key and base ID secure by not committing the .env files to your repository.

2. The starter uses Airtable as a backend, allowing for easy content management without the need for a traditional CMS.

3. Markdown is supported in blog posts, enabling rich content creation directly in Airtable.

4. The project includes SEO optimizations out of the box, but remember to customize them for your specific site.

5. Social sharing features are pre-configured, but you may need to set up appropriate API keys and IDs.

6. The starter is designed to be flexible, allowing for easy customization and extension of features.

7. Gatsby-image is configured to work with the static/ and content folders for optimized image handling.

8. The project includes a pre-configured Netlify deployment setup for quick and easy hosting.

9. Remember to customize the robots.txt file with your domain to ensure proper sitemap indexing.

10. Contributions to the starter are welcome, including new features, UI improvements, and documentation enhancements.